Blackboard eraser

ABSTRACT

A blackboard eraser having a body adapted to be held in the hand, the body carrying an operative layer of leather formed with needle-like penetrations lying substantially parallel to the operative face of the layer of leather.

United States Patent 1191 1111 3,797,061

Statler Mar.'19, 1974 BLACKBOARD ERASER 33.684 11/1861 Munger 15/224[76] lnventor: Lowell E. Statler, Box 115, 11/1896 Gregory 5/223Belleview, Ohio 4481 l FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS I 972 12,1307/1891 Great Britain 36/31 [22] Wed Feb 2 1 506.416 8/1937 Great Britain36/3 13 [21] Appl. No.: 222,895

Primary Examiner-Daniel Blum 52 us. c1 15/223, 15/209 R, 69/21 Attorney,Agent, or Firm0ldham & Oldham [51] Int. Cl B431 21/00 [58] Field ofSearch 15/209 R, 223, 224, 225; 57 A STRACT 36/3 31 A blackboard eraserhaving a body adapted to be held [56] References Cited in the hand, thebody carrying an operative layer of leather formed with needle-likepenetrations lying sub- UNITED STATES PATENTS stantially parallel to theoperative face of the layer of 3,083,392 4/1963 Sewell 15/118 l h740,3ll 9/1903 Pratt I 36/31 2,842.79l 7/1958 Statler 15/209 R 4 Claims,1 Drawing Figure BLACKBOARD ERASER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is oldin the art to provide a blackboard eraser with a working face of leatherhaving needle-like penetrations extending vertically into the face toprevent glazing of the leather surface in use. Such an eraser isdescribed and claimed in my US. Pat. No. 2,842,791 and does a good job.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A blackboard eraser including a grippable bodyhaving a bottom portion, and a layer of leather formed of leather stripsattached to the bottom portion, each strip having needle-likepenetrations extending substantially therethrough in a directionsubstantially parallel to the outer face of the layer of leather.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The general object of the invention is toprovide an improvement upon my aforesaid patent. Another object is toprovide an eraser utilizing leather as an operative face but wherein theleather is constructed and perforated with needle-like penetrations in adifferent manner than before to provide a particularly longwearing andeffective eraser.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, cut away in vertical, transverse section,of the improved eraser of the present invention.

With more detailed reference to the drawings, the numeral indicatesgenerally a substantially'rectangular body having grippable edges 12.The body 10 may be made in various ways, but adapts itself to plastic oraluminum extrusion.

The body 10 has a substantially fiat bottom portion 14 to which isattached a layer 16 of leather. Preferably the layer 16 is directlysecured to the bottom to give a hard base support to the layer, but thelanguage of the claims is intended to cover the combination even thougha layer of cushioning material, such as foam rubber or plastic, isinterposed between the bottom portion 14 and the layer 16.

The leather layer 16 is made up from a plurality of leather strips, forexample, A inch X inch which are adhesively secured to the bottomportion 14. The strips of the leather layer 16 are preferably, but notnecessarily, secured to each other side by side by adhesive means.

An important feature of the invention is that each of the leather stripsis formed with needle-like penetrations, indicated generally by thelines 18, which extend through each strip, and which are parallel orsubstantially parallel to the outer or working face of the leather layer16.

The needle-like penetrations 18 preferably number 500 or more per squareinch so that the fibers of the leather are notably broken down toprovide a leather body which has been found to perform excellently as ablackboard eraser. The needle-like penetrations 18 may be formed asdescribed in my copending United States patent application Ser. No.219,792, filed Jan. 21, 1972, except that they preferably extend all theway through the leather.

It should be understood, however, that in leather, the fibers of theleather generally run parallel to the plane of the skin. Hence thepunching here is substantially perpendicular to the fibers of theleather. However, because the leather 16 is cut in strips, which arerotated so that the fibers are normal or perpendicular to the erasingsurface, it means that the fibers will not tend to roll or sluff outwhich produced smooth or worn areas in my prior eraser design. Hence, inthis design the fibers cannot sluff off and cause bare or smooth areas.The adhesive bond between adjacent strips further helps to prevent therolling or sluffing out of the fibers, and means that no smooth surfaceswill develop which do not provide effective erasing action.

While in accord with the Patent Statutes one best known form of theinvention hasbeen shown and described in detail, it is to be understoodthat the invention is not to be limited thereto, and that the scope ofthe invention is defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A blackboard eraser including a grippable body having a bottomportion, a layer of leather attached to the bottom portion, such thatthe fibers of the leather extend substantially perpendicular to thebottom portion and to the outer face of the layer, said layer sub- 7adhesively secured side by side.

1. A blackboard eraser including a grippable body having a bottomportion, a layer of leather attached to the bottom portion, such thatthe fibers of the leather extend substantially perpendicular to thebottom portion and to the outer face of the layer, said layersubstantially throughout having a multiplicity of substantiallyuniformly distributed needle-like penetrations extending substantiallyparallel to the outer face of said layer to break down the fibers of theleather.
 2. The eraser defined in claim 1 wherein the layer of leatheris formed of a plurality of strips adhesively secured to the bottomportion.
 3. The eraser defined in claim 2 wherein the needle-likepenetrations extend substantially completely through each strip andnumber about 500 per square inch.
 4. The eraser defined in claim 2 wherethe strips are adhesively secured side by side.